View full sizeBrent Wojahn/The OregonianSearch and rescue crews located two missing sisters in the Columbia Gorge about noon today.

Two sisters missing since last night after failing to return from a hike in the Columbia River Gorge hiked back down this afternoon.

A two-person team found the women, Leesa Azar, 53, of Oregon City and Leslie Azar, 50, of Portland, around noon today and they emerged at 2:45 p.m. at the Oneonta trail head.

The two were with a cluster of searchers and wearing yellow-and-black rescue jackets. Their dog trotted beside them.

The sisters got into a van and went to the nearby Horsetail Falls trail head, where they entered a waiting ambulance for a checkup. They appeared OK, walking on their own and talking.

"I'm relieved, but I could fall apart at any minute," said Charles Gallia, Leesa Azar's husband, said earlier when he found out they had been found. He has been waiting at the parking lot where rescue crews were stationed. "I'm more than delighted, but it's a pretty dramatic event."

The two women, both experienced hikers familiar with the Columbia River Gorge trails, set off for a hike with their dog from Horsetail Falls about 2 p.m. Tuesday. Leslie Azar called their mother around 6:30 p.m., saying they were coming back down the trail, said their brother, Matt Azar. They had met at their mother's house and left one car there, he said. They also had headlamps, Gallia said, adding that his wife has descended hikes in the dark before.

But the two women never made it back and were reported missing at 10:45 p.m. Their car was found near a trailhead and crews started looking for them around 1 a.m., said Multnomah County sheriff's Lt. Mary Lindstrand.

Temperatures last night dipped into the teens and the frigid, windy weather continued into the morning. The trail is steep and icy in parts.

The women had at least one cell phone with them, but efforts to contact them by phone had been unsuccessful, Lindstrand said. Crews also tried to locate the cell phone by "pinging" it, but either the phone is off or the battery is dead, she said.

This morning, Gallia went up the Horsetail Falls trail to look for them. "I wanted to tell Leesa that she would not have the opportunity to do this again," he quipped. He said he encountered sheets of ice at the top of the trail and returned to the bottom where he waited with Leesa's and Leslie's father.

Other family members, told to not come to the parking lot, gathered to comfort each other and wait for word.

"We were getting more and more concerned and pessimistic as the hours were going by," Matt Azar said. "So we've got relief and tears ... and now comes finding out what happened and doling out whatever appropriate consequences we want for whatever stupid thing they did."

Leesa, a general-practice physician, is an avid outdoorswoman who rock climbs, ice climbs, kayaks and snowboards, he said. Leslie, a cake decorator, hikes regularly, he said. They frequently hike together with their dog, a Border Collie and German Shepherd mix which they jointly own and who lives part of the week with each sister.